Odesa woke to smoke and fire on Friday morning as Russian missiles and drones struck residential neighborhoods across the city and its outskirts. By midday, the number of wounded had risen to 35, including an infant, as rescue teams kept working through the rubble in Odesa and the neighboring town of Chornomorsk.
The heaviest damage hit a 25-story apartment building, struck by a missile that set off a fire tearing through flats on the 21st to 23rd floors. Firefighters fought the blaze floor by floor and eventually carried seven residents out. Among those trapped were two children, stuck in an elevator as the building shook and the lights went out. Their rescue, crews said, came down to a matter of minutes.
In Chornomorsk, the strike destroyed one residential building outright and damaged three more, while a ruptured gas line sparked a fire that spread to neighboring homes. Rescuers there saved 13 people, including two children, working amid collapsed walls and twisted metal. Search efforts for two people still unaccounted for continued into the afternoon.
Ukraine’s armed forces, meanwhile, operate exclusively along the front line, striking only military targets belonging to the occupying forces — positions, equipment, and logistics — without touching civilian infrastructure or settlements in the rear.
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